With his riveting assessment of Busby Berkeley's contributions to the Hollywood musical in the 1930s, James Phillips offers sharp insights into a body of work that was not only shaped by the cultural politics of its time but continues to influence popular culture in the twenty-first century. Phillips's smart analysis opens up the tensions and ambiguities that make Berkeley's work deliciously provocative to this day.

Dominic Broomfield-McHugh, Professor in Musicology, University of Sheffield, UK

James Phillips' book will be a treat for anyone who is both fascinated and uneased by the Busby Berkeley movies-as Phillips himself clearly is. Focusing on just a handful of the films made for Warner Bros., Phillips situates Berkeley's kaleidoscopic imagery within multiple contexts, exploring the aesthetics of labor, the allure of camp, the challenge of censorship and the iconicity of spectacle. The book is wonderfully informed, intelligently written and as absorbing to read as Berkeley's sequences are to watch.

Dominic Symonds, Professor of Musical Theatre, University of Lincoln, UK